The 2026 Tour de France will begin with a team time trial on the streets of Barcelona
For the first time in its history, the Tour de France will begin with a team time trial. The organizers of the event have announced that the Grande Boucle will start from Barcelona, Spain, in 2026. Commonplace in the past, the team time trial has disappeared from the routes since 2019 and the start from Brussels. It will make its grand return to open the 113th edition which will start on Saturday, July 4, 2026 from the Catalan capital for the 26th start from abroad, the fourth in five years.
The 19.7 km route is laid out in the heart of the city, which has already hosted the Tour three times in 1957, 1965 and 2009 but never as a Grand Départ. It will include a return trip along the seafront, a passage at the foot of the Sagrada Familia, a lively finale on the hill of Montjuic, with the Montjuic hill (1.1 km at 5.1%) then that of the Olympic stadium (800 m at 7%) where the finish will be judged and the first yellow jersey awarded.
💛 #TDF2026 Stage 1 🗓️ July 4. 2026🚩 Barcelona - Barcelona 🏁📏 19.7km
⏱️ The team time trial returns to the Tour! And it will be in the same format as at #ParisNice for the last 3 years: stage classification based on the first rider in each team, but individual time… pic.twitter.com/BDcus1dWj9
"The final part is intended to break up the trains and highlight the team leaders. We can expect that the riders will arrive almost one by one on the line," anticipates Thierry Gouvenou, the technical director of the Tour. To spice up the debates, the time trial classification will be established, as has been the case in Paris-Nice for the past two years, on the time trial of the first rider of each formation. The times will be recorded individually for the general classification, encouraging the leaders to discover each other in the final.
"If time had not stopped on the first rider, we would never have done a team time trial. It revolutionizes the exercise. The first yellow jersey will undoubtedly be a candidate for the final victory."
Christian Prudhomme, the boss of the Tourto AFP
The second stage, also unveiled on Tuesday, will start in Tarragona and finish in Barcelona after 178 km, with a triple ascent of the Montjuic castle climb (1.6 km including 600 m at 13%), before finishing, as for the time trial, in front of the Olympic stadium. "We like to get into the thick of things quickly, and we are going to offer a really invigorating first weekend" , underlines Thierry Gouvenou.
For the third stage, the peloton will set off from Granollers, on the outskirts of Barcelona, to head towards France and a finish city that will not be revealed until October along with the rest of the route.
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